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Gospel: John 6:52-59
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my Flesh is true food,
and my Blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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In the Book of Genesis, how do Adam and Eve break their communion with God?
Through an act of eating.
As Satan the serpent slithers in the Garden of Eden, he convinces Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge, which she then shares with Adam.
This act of disobedience breaks the command given by God to Adam: “You are free to eat from any of the trees in the garden, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it, you shall die.”
Christians understand this to be the origin of sin – and by extension the evil that is still present in our world. Once humanity’s relationship with God was severed, “all hell broke loose,” as it were.
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In today’s Gospel, Jesus reveals how our relationship with God can be restored.
Just as Adam and Eve lost communion with God through a disobedient act of eating, so we are brought back into relationship with our Father through an obedient act of eating.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”
Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge.
In the Eucharist, we eat from the Cross, the tree of life.
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What are we to do with such a great gift?
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Saint Augustine said, “Become what you consume.”
Be the hands, the face, the voice of Christ in the world through acts of prayer, charity, and self-sacrifice.
What might that look like for me today?
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Image credits: (1) Celadon Books (2) Galeries (3) Denver Catholic